As of August 8, 2024, Texas has executed a total of 598 people since the reinstatement of capital punishment in the United States in 1976. Oklahoma had the second-highest number of executed inmates, with 125 executions carried out since 1976.

As of August 8, three executions were carried out by Alabama and two executions were carried out by Missouri in 2024. Another two executions were carried out in Oklahoma in the same year. Death penalty Since 2015, Texas has been the state most likely to perform the most executions in the United States. However, the U.S. government and military also enforce death penalties. Since 1976, 1,392 executions in the country have been conducted through lethal injection. The United States is one of the countries around the world still using capital punishment. It is estimated that China executed a thousand prisoners in 2022, while Iran executed approximately 314 people . Some 55 percent of U.S. citizens stated that they thought capital punishment was morally acceptable . About 35 percent of death penalty supporters reasoned that this form of punishment was “an eye for an eye” due to the crime, while 14 percent of supporters believed that the death penalty could save taxpayers money due to costs associated with prisons. In general, most states require some form of first-degree murder as the crime that is punishable by death. However, 40 percent of denouncers of the death penalty stated that it was wrong to take a life, while 17 percent reasoned that the persons may be wrongly convicted. Support for capital punishment reached a peak in 1991 at 76 percent of the population agreeing.

As of 2023, the U.S. state of Texas had executed 586 death row inmates since 1976, when the death penalty was reinstated. Over the same time period, Oklahoma executed 123 people, and the U.S. federal government executed 16 people.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN THE UNITED STATES, 1973-2018 provides annual data on prisoners under a sentence of death, as well as those who had their sentences commuted or vacated and prisoners who were executed. This study examines basic sociodemographic classifications including age, sex, race and ethnicity, marital status at time of imprisonment, level of education, and state and region of incarceration. Criminal history information includes prior felony convictions and prior convictions for criminal homicide and the legal status at the time of the capital offense. Additional information is provided on those inmates removed from death row by yearend 2018. The dataset consists of one part which contains 9,583 cases. The file provides information on inmates whose death sentences were removed in addition to information on those inmates who were executed. The file also gives information about inmates who received a second death sentence by yearend 2018 as well as inmates who were already on death row.

In Texas, three people were executed in 2020, the highest number of any U.S. state. A ranking of the most dangerous cities in the world based on murder rate per capita can be found here.

In 2021, a total of 11 prisoners were executed in the United States, compared to a total of 17 prisoners who were executed the year prior. 1999 saw the most prisoners executed in the United States, with 98 executions.

In 2023, 24 death row inmates were executed in the United States. During the previous year, there were 18 executions in the country. However, this is a significant decrease from 2000, when 85 death row inmates were executed.

As of August 2024, a total of 1,413 people had been executed by lethal injection in the United States since 1976, making it the most common method of execution in the country. Over that same time period, a further 163 people were executed via electrocution.

Abstract (en): This data collection provides annual data on prisoners under a sentence of death and on prisoners whose sentences were commuted or vacated. The data furnish basic sociodemographic classifications including age, sex, race and ethnicity, marital status at time of imprisonment, level of education, and state and region of incarceration. Criminal history information includes prior felony convictions, prior convictions for criminal homicide, and legal status at the time of the capital offense. Additional information is provided on those inmates removed from death row by yearend 1986, inmates receiving a second capital punishment sentence in 1987, and inmates who were executed. ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: Standardized missing values.; Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.; Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.. All persons in the United States under sentence of death between 1973 and 1987. 2008-11-12 Minor changes have been made to the metadata.2008-10-30 All parts have been moved to restricted access and are available only using the restricted access procedures.2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable, and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to reflect these additions.1997-05-30 SAS data definition statements are now available for this collection, and the SPSS data definition statements were updated. Funding insitution(s): United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. Bureau of Justice Statistics. (1) Information in this dataset collected prior to 1972 is in many cases incomplete and reflects vestiges in the reporting process. (2) Users should note that Part 1, the Combined File contains duplicate identification numbers due to changes in the status of some inmates. These identification numbers were assigned by the Bureau of the Census and have no purpose outside this dataset.

As of November 30, six Black prisoners were executed in the United States, compared to 15 white prisoners who were executed, in 2023. 24 executions were carried out in the United States in 2023 as of November 30.

The purpose of this project was to examine possible defendant and victim race effects in capital decisions in the federal system. Per the terms of their grant, the researchers selected cases that were handled under the revised Death Penalty Protocol of 1995 and were processed during Attorney General Janet Reno's term in office. The researchers began the project by examining a sample of Department of Justice Capital Case Unit (CCU) case files. These files contained documents submitted by the United States Attorney's Office (USAO), a copy of the indictment, a copy of the Attorney General's Review Committee on Capital Cases (AGRC's) draft and final memorandum to the Attorney General (AG), and a copy of the AG's decision letter. Next, they created a list of the types of data that would be feasible and desirable to collect and constructed a case abstraction form and coding rules for recording data on victims, defendants, and case characteristics from the CCU's hard-copy case files. The record abstractors did not have access to information about defendant or victim gender or race. Victim and defendant race and gender data were obtained from the CCU's electronic files. Five specially trained coders used the case abstraction forms to record and enter salient information in the CCU hard-copy files into a database. Coders worked on only one case at a time. The resulting database contains 312 cases for which defendant- and victim-race data were available for the 94 federal judicial districts. These cases were received by the CCU between January 1, 1995 and July 31, 2000, and for which the AG at the time had made a decision about whether to seek the death penalty prior to December 31, 2000. The 312 cases includes a total of 652 defendants (see SAMPLING for cases not included). The AG made a seek/not-seek decision for 600 of the defendants, with the difference between the counts stemming mainly from defendants pleading guilty prior to the AG making a charging decision. The database was structured to allow researchers to examine two stages in the federal prosecution process, namely the USAO recommendation to seek or not to seek the death penalty and the final AG charging decision. Finally, dispositions (e.g., sentence imposed) were obtained for all but 12 of the defendants in the database. Variables include data about the defendants and victims such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, employment, education, marital status, and the relationship between the defendant and victim. Data are provided on the defendant's citizenship (United States citizen, not United States citizen), place of birth (United States born, foreign born), offense dates, statute code, counts for the ten most serious offenses committed, defendant histories of alcohol abuse, drug abuse, mental illness, physical or sexual abuse as a child, serious head injury, intelligence (IQ), or other claims made in the case. Information is included for up to 13 USAO assessments and 13 AGRC assessments of statutory and non-statutory aggravating factors and mitigating factors. Victim characteristics included living situation and other reported factors, such as being a good citizen, attending school, past abuse by the defendant, gross size difference between the victim and defendant, if the victim was pregnant, if the victim had a physical handicap, mental or emotional problems or developmental disability, and the victim's present or former status (e.g., police informant, prison inmate, law enforment officer). Data are also provided for up to 13 factors each regarding the place and nature of the killing, defendant motive, coperpetrators, weapons, injuries, witnesses, and forensic and other evidence.

This activity uses Map Viewer. ResourcesMapTeacher guide Student worksheetGet startedOpen the map.Use the teacher guide to explore the map with your class or have students work through it on their own with the worksheet.New to GeoInquiriesTM? See Getting to Know GeoInquiries.Social Studies standardsC3: D2.Civ.8.6-8 – Analyze ideas and principles contained in the founding documents of the United States, and explain how they influence the social and political system. C3:D2.Civ.14.9-12 – Analyze historical, contemporary, and emerging means of changing societies, promoting the common good.C3:D2.Civ.11.9-12 – Evaluate multiple procedures for making governmental decisions at the local, state, national, and international levels in terms of the civic purposes achieved.Learning outcomesStudents will interpret map data as they identify and explain differences in the distribution of the death penalty throughout the United States.Students will analyze the relationship between executions and prisoners on death row.More activitiesAll Government GeoInquiriesAll GeoInquiries

In the state of California, a total of 690 people were under sentence of death as of December 31, 2021, by far the most out of any state. Florida, Texas, Alabama, and North Carolina rounded out the top five states with the most people under sentence of death in that year.

In 2021, around 12.2 percent of prisoners on death row in the United States were between 40 and 44 years of age. Most prisoners on death row, at 17.6 percent, were between the ages of 50 and 54 years old. The death penalty is authorized in 27 states and by the federal government.

Prisoners on death row in the U.S. tend to be men. Only 2.1 percent of those on death row in the United States were women as of December 2021. In the United States, the death penalty is authorized by 27 states and the federal government.

Includes new Executive Branch Contracts for Service, executed during the fiscal year, as entered by departments in the VISION system. Data excludes most commodity and transportation construction contracts. Contact the business unit (BU) for detail about individual contracts.

This article analyses which factors promote or hinder ratification by nation states of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the only universal treaty aimed at the abolition of the death penalty. The study finds that a democratic regime, a left-wing oriented government, regional peer influence, and a high level of economic development speed up ratification. A legal system built on common law and, if less robustly, ethnic fractionalisation lower the likelihood of ratification. These results are compared to the determinants of domestic death penalty abolition. Besides similarities, one striking difference is that Eastern European country membership in the Council of Europe has been important for domestic abolition, but has had no influence on ratification of the Second Optional Protocol. Western European countries exerted pressure on Eastern European countries to abolish the death penalty, but did not extend their pressure towards a ratification of the Second Protocol. Also, whereas economic development does not matter for domestic abolition, an internationally binding commitment to abolition becomes more likely the richer the country.

As of January 2024, about 941 inmates on death row in the United States were white. A further 920 death row inmates in that same year were Black, and 23 people on death row in the country were Native Americans.

In 2023, Iran executed at least 853 people, but the number is likely to be higher according to the source. Saudi Arabia followed in second with 172 executions. Some countries intentionally conceal their death penalty practices while others do not maintain accurate records on the number of death sentences and executions carried out. For instance, executions were known to have been committed in for instance China, Afghanistan, and North Korea, but it was impossible for the source to find the exact figures.

In 2021, an average of 233 months elapsed between sentencing and execution for inmates on death row in the United States. This is an increase from 1990, when an average of 95 months passed between sentencing and execution.